Thank you for visiting HeavyEquipmentForums.com! Our objective is to provide industry professionals a place to gather to exchange questions, answers and ideas. We welcome you to register using the "Register" icon at the top of the page.
We'd appreciate any help you can offer in spreading the word of our new site. The more members that join, the bigger resource for all to enjoy.
Thank you!

ALL NEW MEMBERS READ THIS FIRST!!
Thank you for joining Heavy Equipment Forums! If you are new to forums we communicate with "Threads", please search our threads to see if your topic may have already been answered and if not then click "Post New Thread" in the appropriate forum. This will allow all of our members to see your question and give you the best chance to be answered. After you've made a number of posts you will graduate to Full Member status where you'll see a few more privileges. Following these guidelines will help make this the best resource for heavy equipment on the net. Thanks for joining us and I hope you enjoy your stay!!

Small skidder

Looking around for a small skidder for some once in a while lot clearing, which seems to come down to timber jack and Deere, I have all Cat equipment and thought about a Cat skidder.

Found some timber jack 230 and 240 they seem like purpose build machines and generic parts. They seem easy to get in and out of, guessing the 4 cylinder is preferred over the 3, and the manual transmission I believe is rugged and inexpensive to fix.

Deere makes a smaller skidder, 440 and 540. But seem to have specialty parts, and bring a premium price for old machines, and more difficult to get in and out of. The power shift transmission could be expensive to fix.

Older Cat skidders, 508 518 look like logging was an afterthought and getting in and out a pain with a chainsaw. Also the transmission could be expensive to fix. They seem rare so parts could be difficult.

I have a 20 ton tag trailer to move it around with so weight width and height are a concern.

Any thoughts are appreciated, any makes or models to stay away from, or a particular model that is a diamond in the rough.

A Clark 664, 665 or 666 is an excellent machine. Make sure you get the Clark winch. Most of them have 353 and 453 power but if you are lucky enough to come across a 666 with a Cummins and a Clark winch you really have something there. Most of those are the later D models.

The old C4 and C5 Tree Farmer's are good old generac parts machines as well as the ones mentioned above. Still lots of them around in the Midwest. Most have 3-53 or 4-53 Detroit's in them with straight sticks. Many older machines have Gearmatic winches in them. All good, near bulletproof winches, but the most popular, the Model 19 will make a strong man out of you trying to pull the cable out the first few drags in the morning until it limbers up. We used to leave the last drag of the day connected and pull the cable out and in with the machine a couple times first thing in the morning.

I’m a fan of the Gearmatic 19. I rebuild and true up the drums on a lot of them. Once you true up the drums they are like brand new for several years.

Click to expand...

I have a Gearmatic Model 9 on my original Garret. Had a Gearmatic Model 20 on my last C5D. Both great bullet proof winches. Had a lot of well used Model 19s over the years. Never heard of trueing the drum but it sure makes sense. They had to pull better when new or they would not have been so popular. The Clark winch on my long wheelbase Ranger 666 is a great winch, but gets very little use. I keep the driveshaft off of it 99% of the time. Gives quite a bit more power to the machine with it not turning and saves wear on them spendy drive yokes.

Located in Northern New Hampshire, I have seen a few clark 664, a lot of timberjack 230 and 240 models around. Not to many Tree Farmers here, Deere skidders are popular, and for some reason a 440B or C is 25 grand, and for about that i could buy a newer 525 Cat.

Franklin's were good skidders. However with Franklin out of business, finding some of the Franklin specific parts can be difficult and probably used. That era machine has a Franklin built powershift transmission.

Its official, purchased a Franklin 105 believe it has a 353 Detroit, not a power house but the right sized machine, if i am getting the sizing right it weighs around 16,000 lbs so bigger than a 440 deere smaller than a 540. Doing some research on franklin looks like the center pivot rotates instead of the front axle pivot, is that a good thing?

Its official, purchased a Franklin 105 believe it has a 353 Detroit, not a power house but the right sized machine, if i am getting the sizing right it weighs around 16,000 lbs so bigger than a 440 deere smaller than a 540. Doing some research on franklin looks like the center pivot rotates instead of the front axle pivot, is that a good thing?

Click to expand...

That’d be like a forwarder or harvester is but they use brakes or cylinders to only allow so much roll.

So this turned into a complete **** show, Franklin 105 thought was stolen before my low bed got there, my service manager figured out it was sold to multiple people.

Click to expand...

Nice neighborhood you live in.
I can remember in the late 70's over on the peninsula, a tower, shovel, pair of Cats annd the fire truck all disappeared one weekend. right down to all the lines and guylines. The law figured they went to Alaska on a barge and were in Canadian waters buy Sunday PM. nobody ever got arrested for that.

Nice neighborhood you live in.
I can remember in the late 70's over on the peninsula, a tower, shovel, pair of Cats annd the fire truck all disappeared one weekend. right down to all the lines and guylines. The law figured they went to Alaska on a barge and were in Canadian waters buy Sunday PM. nobody ever got arrested for that.

Click to expand...

Sounds like a bank auction at a sawmill near hear that burned many years ago. A few days before the auction all the hydraulic cylinders along with some engine parts were stolen off of a fairly decent pole length knuckle boom loader. The tandem tires and wheels were also missing off the back, leaving it setting conveniently on blocks. It was purchased for little to nothing by a former mill foreman whom logged on the side. I loaded his poles for him as he was on the next sale over from us. A week later he told me he no longer needed me to load as he had his new loader fixed and in the woods. I swung by on the way home and there it was with all the existing tires, wheels, and cylinders back on it.

There once was a farmer named....I won’t say. Decided he needed a new tractor one fine day. Picked the phone, called dealer, and ordered a new one. Looked through the options he did. The factory built just like he said. Some time later he got a call that his tractor from the dealer was to haul. The farmer sent his right hand man to pick it up, but one of the salesmen has already sold his spec’d tractor out without checking to see it was already sold. We are talking a tractor worth probably a little north of $300k. He was special ordered for extra hydraulics to run the biggest planter around. He was very brand loyal. He pulled the planter with a different color ride after that.